For years, I have said that the easiest way to break a cryptographic product is almost never by breaking the algorithm, that almost invariably there is a programming error that allows you to bypass the mathematics and break the product.

On the topic of safely destroying data, what Thibadeau refers to as cryptographic erase, not only can self-encrypting hard drives make the process easier, it can make destroying data faster and also more cost-effective.

The researchers 'solution is to create a publicly available digital fingerprint, known as a cryptographic hash mark, that will make it possible for anyone to determine that the documents are authentic and have not been tampered with.